If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Obama re-elected as President of the USA

Divided U.S. Gives Obama More Time

Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected president of the United States on Tuesday, overcoming powerful economic headwinds, a lock-step resistance to his agenda by Republicans in Congress and an unprecedented torrent of advertising as a divided nation voted to give him more time.

In defeating Mitt Romney, the president carried Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, a near sweep of the battleground states, and was holding a narrow advantage in Florida. The path to victory for Mr. Romney narrowed as the night wore along, with Mr. Obama winning at least 303 electoral votes.

A cheer of jubilation sounded at the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago when the television networks began projecting him as the winner at 11:20 p.m., even as the ballots were still being counted in many states where voters had waited in line well into the night. The victory was far narrower than his historic election four years ago, but it was no less dramatic.

CNN has some more detailed voting results. Nothing too surprising: Whites, Men, the Religious and the Wealthy tended to favour Romney, Blacks, Latinos, Women and the Working Class favoured Obama. What I find interesting is that Obama received 303 Electoral Votes, but only 50% of the popular vote. I realize this is due to way the election system in the US works, but it still feels a bit strange.

Other than that, Democrats managed to retain control of the Senate and Republicans will most likely keep the House, which means after a huge and expensive campaign nothing really changed.

I can't speak for the internal workings of America, but I reckon having Obama as president has repaired some of the damage to their worldwide image. If this were any other forum I might hesitate to say the international community really likes him, because that inevitably brings out an extremist or two spouting accusations along the lines of 'socialist' and 'European sympathiser.' Man, the way they go on, you'd think we were cold war Russians instead of trusted allies.

Man, the way they go on, you'd think we were cold war Russians instead of trusted allies.

Sometimes I wish the accusations some US conservatives throw at us were actually true. In my country the rich have profited disproportionately from the increase in wealth while roughly every tenth citizen lives in poverty. We're not very good at this whole socialism thing.

I can't speak for the internal workings of America, but I reckon having Obama as president has repaired some of the damage to their worldwide image.

That's certainly been my anecdotal experience of talking to various Europeans. Except for one Italian left-wing activist I know, Obama's initial positive image seems to have immunized him against any kind of serious criticism, even though his foreign policy is where he's the worst. Can you imagine Bush getting away with, say, this heavy usage of drone strikes? Or the continuation of Guantanamo? Not without universal criticism.

Originally Posted by Sparkasaurusmex

Yeah but how will this work with state rights vs federal laws? It's an interesting issue. Been watching the back and forth in Cali for a few years now.

I can't imagine how the DEA won't crash the party. As you suggest, they've been intruding on California's medical marijuana setup for the past decade or so.

Yeah but how will this work with state rights vs federal laws? It's an interesting issue. Been watching the back and forth in Cali for a few years now.

The state won't go after you if they find you with pot (under the new limit), but the feds will. I don't think these new ballot initiatives allow for distribution centers like you have in California, so there's no conflict of interest where the state is allowing a store that the feds then have to raid.

Of course things like growing operations will continue as before, with state and federal levels both working on it.

Edit: I take that back, the Washington state measure does get into retail distribution, so we're looking at the same situation of federal raids on these stores.

I can't speak for the internal workings of America, but I reckon having Obama as president has repaired some of the damage to their worldwide image. If this were any other forum I might hesitate to say the international community really likes him, because that inevitably brings out an extremist or two spouting accusations along the lines of 'socialist' and 'European sympathiser.' Man, the way they go on, you'd think we were cold war Russians instead of trusted allies.

As was pointed out on the NYTimes a few weeks ago, the general image in the Russian government was, "we don't really like Obama, but we at least have a relationship with him. With Romney's Cold War rhetoric, we can't talk to him at all."

Originally Posted by TillEulenspiegel

That's certainly been my anecdotal experience of talking to various Europeans. Except for one Italian left-wing activist I know, Obama's initial positive image seems to have immunized him against any kind of serious criticism, even though his foreign policy is where he's the worst. Can you imagine Bush getting away with, say, this heavy usage of drone strikes? Or the continuation of Guantanamo? Not without universal criticism.

Obama's reputation in Europe has cooled from 2008 for those very reasons of continuing Bush-era policies. He's still not as crazy as Bush, so it's a net positive.

Originally Posted by Shane

In Europe, maybe, but I doubt Obama's win has had any impact on public opinion elsewhere.

Most of the world loves Obama because they can actually deal with him. Hell, Iran offered first responders and Venezuela offered cheap gasoline when Sandy hit New Jersey, because Obama offered to send first responders to Tabriz in August, and because he offered a form of detente to Chavez after the high rhetoric during the Libyan intervention.

NalanoH. Wildmoon
Director of the Friends of Nalano PAC
Attorney at Lawl
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." - Woody Allen

Most of the world loves Obama because they can actually deal with him. Hell, Iran offered first responders and Venezuela offered cheap gasoline when Sandy hit New Jersey, because Obama offered to send first responders to Tabriz in August, and because he offered a form of detente to Chavez after the high rhetoric during the Libyan intervention.

Love would be a strong word. There is strong sentiment against him in Pakistan for the drone attacks. Other South Asian countries are wary of him because of his stance against outsourcing, it's another matter that he's not actually gonna do anything about it. By not doing much to support the uprisings in the Middle East, he hasn't done much to help his image there either(still, that's just a couple of countries). Iran's overture may be just a thinly veiled move to boost its image, but, yes, making such a move wouldn't have crossed their minds had Bush been in-charge.

Love would be a strong word. There is strong sentiment against him in Pakistan for the drone attacks. Other South Asian countries are wary of him because of his stance against outsourcing, it's another matter that he's not actually gonna do anything about it. By not doing much to support the uprisings in the Middle East, he hasn't done much to help his image there either(still, that's just a couple of countries). Iran's overture may be just a thinly veiled move to boost its image, but, yes, making such a move wouldn't have crossed their minds had Bush been in-charge.

His relationship with world leaders is cordial, and he's very popular with their citizens. In global politics, that is​ love.

He has done a lot, consequently, to foster Arab independence, by offering money and recognition, not political advisers. Libya was a multilateral operation when it came to international intervention, and was fought on the ground entirely by Libyans in the name of their own liberty. After their velvet revolution, nobody is going to accuse the new regime in Egypt of being in America's pocket, and that is a good thing.

Last edited by Nalano; 07-11-2012 at 05:23 PM.

NalanoH. Wildmoon
Director of the Friends of Nalano PAC
Attorney at Lawl
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." - Woody Allen

His relationship with world leaders is cordial, and he's very popular with their citizens.

He has done a lot, consequently, to foster Arab independence, by offering money and recognition, not political advisers. Libya was a multilateral operation when it came to international intervention, and was fought on the ground entirely by Libyans in the name of their own liberty. After their velvet revolution, nobody is going to accuse the new regime in Egypt of being in America's pocket, and that is a good thing.

He threw them bones because he had to do something, it is just token support to show the world that the US wasn't indifferent. Foreign aid won't have a positive impact on the US' image until something is accomplished with it. Even then people are unlikely to forget that the US has supported Mubarak through the years until his downfall was inevitable, and that Obama looked the other way while people died on a massive scale in Syria.
"After their velvet revolution, nobody is going to accuse the new regime in Egypt of being in America's pocket, and that is a good thing."

No one is going to accuse them of being in America's pocket because they stood against dictatorships which were in America's pocket.

Black Obama won, White Obama lost. No significant change anywhere else, not that change was possible in the first place. I'm mildly disappointed that the liberty movement didn't do better, but eh, it's time to focus on 2014.